Iceman 2 - The Golden Shaft by Joseph Nazel

The Golden Shaft
by Joseph Nazel
Iceman 2
Holloway House 1974

The Iceman is Henry Highland West, a Harlem pimp who worked his way up to becoming "one of the richest, most powerful blacks in the world".  He runs the Oasis, a giant brothel and casino complex in the Nevada desert protected by an army of female martial artists who he totals does it with whenever he wants.

A prospector who works on West's land is killed by miners who want to buy a section of West's land where a gold deposit has been discovered.  They are flabbergasted that West refuses to sell out, and one of West's prostitutes seduces one of them to discover their plans.

This goes south when a South African miner wants to get rough and she ends up being gutshot and raped to death - off-page of course.

The Iceman wants revenge and goes to a place and shoots people.  Then he flies a plane to Africa, hangs out with extras from a Tarzan movie, flies to another place and shoots people, the end.

The action scenes are so-so, but the actual plot is pretty much nonexistent.  Most of the page length is filled with scenes like this:

"You can't be good at the thing because you're a black."
The Iceman is good at the thing.
"I am better than you at the thing."
"How can that be?  I am white and you are black!"
"I am the best at doing the thing.  Honky."

I miss honky.

I don't think it's a stretch to say this series has a little juvenile wish fulfillment power fantasy stuff going on, but I'd rather they stick to sex and violence rather than constant pissing contests.

Speaking of sex, there isn't any.  None.  Not one sex scene.  This is a novel about a pimp who happens to be the world's best at sex running the Disney World of whorehouses and we're given two fade-to-black scenes.

Probably just as well.  I never got the whole pimp fantasy thing.  I can get that an emotionally stunted thirteen-year-old boy would like the idea that they're super good at sex and making women do whatever they want.  I can see the appeal of that power being so great that it makes you money.  It gets a little weird to take the next step of enjoying that power to make women have sex with gross dudes, but I just can't make that final step of "now come back and have sex with me again."  Just ewww.

This scenario is played out with the prostitute seducing the miner on her own initiative.  Pages and pages of "I don't want to have sex with this horrible man, but I will, because maybe the Iceman will approve."

Overall this should have been much, much more over the top.  For pimp action you can go gritty like Iceberg Slim or silly like Dolemite, but this was neither.  Dull and rushed, with page upon page of the baddies going "I can't believe the n-word is better than me at the thing".

Costs way too much on the used book market.